"Daran"
was originally an insult for those gnomes
who had gone to live with humans and meant
something on the lines of "servant/pet",
but now has come to mean any gnomewho lives among humans. Obviously
there is great variation between the Daran depending on which
humansthey live
among.

Their is no really difference between a traditional Daran and a
Gnorian apart from in where they live. Both the
Gnoriansand the Daran come from the sameoriginal tribe
which was simply called gnomes
(equivalent to the race) but the Daran were assimilated by
humansinto their
cities while the Gnorians live independently.

Picture description.A
Daran Gnome in the process of collecting some glowcap mushrooms.Image drawn by Eshóh.

Appearance.
Daran look mostly like any normal
gnomes. Which
means:They are slightly less than a ped all the way through to one and a half peds.
Their skin tone is very pale and they are not very muscular.
Daran Gnomes also mostly imitate the looks of the
humans with whom they live in the same
town, that's why you'll see many Daran Gnomes wearing beards, and mostly they
also aren't completely bald as Gnorians are for
example. Usually Darans are a very obliging and helpful kind of people, that's
why they are also often called the "friendly
dwarves" by the
humans.

Coat of Arms/Sign.
Daran don't have an own sign or coat of arms. They take the coat of arms of the people they live among whenever they need
to identify themselves with it.

Territory.
A small number of Daran can be found in most of the cities of
Santharia though some contain larger
gnomish populations than others, an
example being Cavthan which has a rather huge Daran population.

In many cities the Daran form their own areas of the city and live in a very
similar way to the Gnorians, most of them following
the edicts of the Arch-Alchemist and containing Merchant Guild buildings. This
often causes problems with the local population as the Daran tend to ignore
humans and always deal inside their own
community apart from things the
gnomes don't make.

Some Daran like those in Cavthan behave in a very similair way to the
Gnorians but accept all the
humans in the city as honourary gnomes and treat everyone
equally. This is probably the best way for
humans and gnomes
to co-exist.

The final extreme that gnomes
can go to is to try and act as much like the people they are living among. They
normally still have alchemy as a major part of there occupation but apart from
that try to live like humans. The success
of this varies with the attitudes of the
humans whose city they share.

Normally the gnomish position will lie
somewhere between the three and occasionly there will be two different Daran
populations in the city one acting like Gnorians and
one trying to act like the humans they are
among. Normally the ones who try to act like
humans are a lot younger.

There is often a great deal of tension between the
humans and gnomes, especially if the
gnomes are
isolating themselves. The humans tend to
dislike the fact that the Daran make so much money and live so well through
their alchemical expertise especially as the gnomes are notoriously
secret about their techniques and will not teach them to anyone. These coupled
with the natural human dislike of all
things different can lead to huge amounts of racism and there are many reports
of gnomes being
attacked on the street in some parts of
Santharia.

Housing.
Again this varies on the type of Daran. Those trying to be like
humans will live in
human style housing, while the other types
of Daran have housing more like the traditional Gnorians.

Clothing.
Those
gnomes trying to be
like humans wear
human style clothes, but even some who are
acting more like “normal” gnomes
are known to wear these types of clothes to fit in on the streets. Those who
don’t often give a spark of colour to dull
human streets in their bright Gnorian clothing.

Diet.
The Daran normally get their food from humans
so their location will greatly effect what foods they eat, for example in a
fishing village they will eat large amounts of fish. Drinks are different as
the gnomish skill at fermenting and
distilling alcohol means that they drink more traditional
gnomish drinks even if they try to
integrate themselves into the community. These drinks often tend to be in high
demand among the humans as well.

Weapons.
The
gnomes who dwell
among men, although not normally involved
in fighting themselves have used their alchemical knowledge to create weapons of
great power. One of these weapons would be the Atch-loch, which sprays burning
concoctions straight in front of it for a limited distance but causing huge
destruction. Another example would be Gnomish Fire, that is thought of as
magical by most, in which a ball of burning concoctions is lobbed at the enemy
(normally by a catapult but any other method would do) which is not put out by
water but instead burns more fiercely. These inventions have been
instrumental in certain sieges like the
siege of Milkengrad in 617 b.S.).

Occupations.
Gnomes living among humans will either
choose a traditional alchemists job like producing glass, making acid weapons
or creating medicine. The gnomish alchemists
work are always highly prized and the Daran can be very rich. Those acting like
humans, if they feel they cannot do an alchemical job, will occasionally do any job they can which a
human usually does in the settlement in
which they live.

Government.
Obviously
gnomes who live
among humans are subject to their
government, although seldom allowed a say in it even if there are democratic
institutions. Although under the humans'
government control most gnomes
will sort things out between themselves and listen to the best alchemist in the
city.

Production/Trade.
The Daran produce many things related to alchemy for the people among whom they live.
These make medicines, cement, dyes, cloth, magical reagents (especially among
the Daran who live on the Ximaxian
peninsula), salt (mainly in Cavthan), and many alcholic drinks to name just a
few of their many products. There is virtually always a large amount of trade
going on between the Daran and the humans
as the gnomes' alchemical products are
highly prized and the Daran need food and housing to live.

One of their major money earners is the creation of glass vessels,
eye-glasses, mirrors and
stained glass windows. They had used coloured glass in replace of gems, and
this had done very well as a cheap, novelty decoration, however the
dwarves made it quite clear that no-one
was going to push their way into the gem market and destroyed most of the
gnomish workshops that produced fake gems.
At the time the gnomes were in a very weak
position as general gnomish hatred was
growing as the doctors gave preferential treatment to
gnomes during the Plague at
Nyermersys
in 602 b.S. so they gave up the decoration business. Although at first no
humans knew how to make glass now some are
cottoning on and this is a further cause for bad
gnomish-human
relations.

Natural Resources.
This all depends on which humans they live
among, for example in Cavthan they have access to a large amount of sea water
from which they make their salt.